But surely my emails are relevant? (Erm...no)
Latest posts | Feed | By Mark Brownlow on November 01, 2006
I'm still working through a steaming pile of email that built up in my recent absence from home. But there's a lot of media talk (again) about relevancy. That the pot of email marketing gold is buried at the end of the relevancy rainbow.
Fine sentiments that I fully support.
But a lot of people say to themselves, well, hang on one short moment. People are signing up to our emails because they're interested in what we're sending.
So surely our emails must be relevant and targeted by default? Otherwise the recipients wouldn't have signed up, would they?
That seems logical, but is misleading. Often, if you give more thought to why people sign up and who they are, you'll see it's not always true.
Let me just give two simple examples to illustrate the point.
First, a golf retailer that sends out weekly promotions on new gear. So a golfer signs up for that: you can't go wrong on relevancy there, surely?
Now consider this...
1. Men and women play with different golf equipment,
2. Some people like to buy equipment components and put them together. Others like to buy the finished product,
3. Beginners need completely different equipment to advanced players,
4. Shopping budgets are likely to vary enormously depending on whether you play once every two months or every weekend.
5. A golfer in Wisconsin needs different golf apparel to one in Florida.
Suddenly, getting the right promotions in front of the recipient isn't quite so easy: you need to know much more about that golfer to really hit the relevancy target.
Second, I love cooking. (Really.) So let me sign up for your weekly recipe newsletter. That's targeted, right?
1. The first recipe I get is for chocolate cake. Whoops, I'm on a diet. Not good.
2. The second is for a lovely pork casserole. Whoops, I'm vegetarian. Not good.
3. The third is for broccoli pie. Whoops, I only cook for the family, and my kids are not big broccoli fans. Not good.
You see the point? Content that sounds great in theory can turn out to be not so great after all. Which explains why there's so much fuss about relevancy and targeting.
Makes you think, doesn't it?
Fine sentiments that I fully support.
But a lot of people say to themselves, well, hang on one short moment. People are signing up to our emails because they're interested in what we're sending.
So surely our emails must be relevant and targeted by default? Otherwise the recipients wouldn't have signed up, would they?
That seems logical, but is misleading. Often, if you give more thought to why people sign up and who they are, you'll see it's not always true.
Let me just give two simple examples to illustrate the point.
First, a golf retailer that sends out weekly promotions on new gear. So a golfer signs up for that: you can't go wrong on relevancy there, surely?
Now consider this...
1. Men and women play with different golf equipment,
2. Some people like to buy equipment components and put them together. Others like to buy the finished product,
3. Beginners need completely different equipment to advanced players,
4. Shopping budgets are likely to vary enormously depending on whether you play once every two months or every weekend.
5. A golfer in Wisconsin needs different golf apparel to one in Florida.
Suddenly, getting the right promotions in front of the recipient isn't quite so easy: you need to know much more about that golfer to really hit the relevancy target.
Second, I love cooking. (Really.) So let me sign up for your weekly recipe newsletter. That's targeted, right?
1. The first recipe I get is for chocolate cake. Whoops, I'm on a diet. Not good.
2. The second is for a lovely pork casserole. Whoops, I'm vegetarian. Not good.
3. The third is for broccoli pie. Whoops, I only cook for the family, and my kids are not big broccoli fans. Not good.
You see the point? Content that sounds great in theory can turn out to be not so great after all. Which explains why there's so much fuss about relevancy and targeting.
Makes you think, doesn't it?
[This post brought to you by Campaigner Email Marketing]
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1 Comments:
check check
By 
, on
02 November, 2006
